Hard to arque with these lists, esp. at this point and not knowing who was left out . Hope that a certain catcher playing for Beloit and a certain P from Baton Rouge made it before Hung-Yi Chen. Not that I can argue about their placement, but it is sad to see Gutty and Watts drop so low...

Excited to see what #50 and 43 can do. Happy the Twins went over slot to get them, I love the risk taking that showed. Hope to see that in the 2012 draft as well.
Jones
Why would the Twins have a 22 year old college pitcher at e-town?

Gutteriez dropping that far, that fast is sad. Lots of older players, again, playing in below A ball....meaning they learn almost nothing. Law (i think it was law, it may have been BA, but I'm pretty sure it was Law) has stated several times in chats that it is bad strategy for MN (yes, he's mentioned them by name) to have older players playing below A ball for extended time, or even any time.

Gutteriez dropping that far, that fast is sad. Lots of older players, again, playing in below A ball....meaning they learn almost nothing. Law (i think it was law, it may have been BA, but I'm pretty sure it was Law) has stated several times in chats that it is bad strategy for MN (yes, he's mentioned them by name) to have older players playing below A ball for extended time, or even any time.

Depends on how you look at it... There are a couple of the EST pitchers that I have no idea why they're there. The other side of the coin is... who at Beloit would you like to see given up on, released, etc.?

I am curious if you can explain a little further what you mean by the rankings. Does it mean value? For example if you as Twins GM were on the verge of a trade, and the other team says "throw in Trent Higginbotham and we're ready to say yes", does his being #50 mean you would immediately agree? And, if instead they said "throw in either Higginbotham or Tyler Jones", you as GM would think a few moments and say "make it Higginbotham" because you have Jones ranked (ever so slightly) the higher of the two on your internal chart?
Probably the difference in #49 and #50 verges on the nonsensical. But if you say this guy is #10 and this other guy is #50, is it because he is more... has more... does more... what?
I suppose this summarizes why I have a bit of trouble with the whole idea of ranked lists. Though they are fun of course.

Fair question:
For me, it's first and foremost about getting Twins minor leaguers recognized.
You're right, that 49 vs 50 is not a huge difference. But I will say that the difference between #1 and #2 is pretty big, and the difference, for me, between say 8 and 12 is pretty big.
I look at ceiling first. What could this guy be? A future Hall of Famer? A long-time starter and All-Star? A cup-of-coffee guy? Or a guy who could top out at Hi-A ball?
You also have to consider likelihood of reaching that ceiling? What level they're at, their age, their build or tools, maybe a little look at the stats to see if the tools are showing up at all yet.
And, then it's just my opinion... If 50 of us put together our own lists, we might get 50 different responses/lists. So, yes, it should primarily be looked at as fun and informational.

Wow, I was just checking AA stats...the Twins don't have a hitter in the top 35 in OPS in the whole league, unless I missed someone. That can't be good.

Well..
From the qualified, Deibi Romero is leading the squad with .744 OPS (and Hicks, who is slumping, is pretty close.) Risotto and W. Ramirez have higher but they do not qualify. New Britain is one of the teams that I would not complain about. They are leading their division

Pretty good start to this, though I know so little about most of the guys in EST so I have a hard time weighing players who haven't played in the organization at all or who have played very little.
I wouldn't be surprised if Vargas had a great short year this year. It is really unfortunate about last season because he is a good hitter.
Lance Ray is too low.

I jokingly thought that guys that haven't played yet would move up more than guys who are playing... it ends up being kind of true. Very disappointing year so far for Twins prospects. These EST guys all have a very good upside, and like I said, they could move up or down quickly. I had Lance Ray lower, but 16 HR last year in the MWL and already 16 extra base hits this year in the FSL... the BA is so low... he's a tough one to rank for me.

I think you put Lance Ray in the right place. I know his BA is scary low but that is in part because of his high strikeout total. I believe that as he gets more at bats, he will learn to be more selective at the plate and you will see his average go up as a result. And like you said, when he does hit the ball it usually goes far. Hopefully he will bulk up more this next off-season and become even a bigger power threat.
I do disagree with you saying he is just an average defensive player. Since he has been playing baseball in the minors, he has a .984 fielding percentage. I don't know what the norm is for minor league outfielders, but I think that is pretty darn good. I know his range is sub par, but he makes up for it with his arm.

I will be interested in seeing the rest of the list and how many players you think will have a meaningful impact in the majors. Looking over the rosters, there are very few that project that way and most of them are at lower levels.